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Uwee hee hee... This is what listening to Poor Unfortunate Souls over and over inspires. __________________________________

Kray huffed tiredly, letting a cool current of water fill her gills. The cephalopod merwoman had made a vow to get as much exercise as possible throughout the course of her pregnancy, and took the shortness of breath as a sign that she was on the right track.

She lived close enough to Atliana to hear her fair share of their gossip, and had heard a rather disturbing tale of an orca woman that had grown so heavy with young that she'd beached herself while sunning on an atoll. The idea of being left stranded until the tides rose enough to return to the safety of deep blue was enough to send shivers not just down her spine, but to the tips of her tendrils.

Being a descendant of the House of Architeuthidae, she knew from observation that the women in her family tended towards especially large pregnancies, both in size and quantity. Her parents had even told her that it was a small marvel that she had been born alone. To make matters even worse, since she lived in a far deeper region of the ocean than those in Atliana, she knew that her children would most likely be positively huge at birth in order to better thrive in the pressure of the depths. Hence, while her swollen middle was already more than enough to fill her arms, she was still many leagues away from birthing her unborn children.

Which made the need for exercise all the more important. While she assumed that story it was simply an exaggerated rumor, for her it was still close enough to a potential truth to cause her to give pause. And so, she decided to begin a strict diet and exercise regimen.

As a few bubbles escaped her lips as she sighed, resting her heavy bulk against one of the mysterious structures that had sunken the previous year. It had begun to rot in its final resting place and the easy denizens of Rikuo City had yet to demolish it. There was little point --they had no idea what the massive thing it was for, but it vaugely resembled their houses...except that whatever it was made of seemed to disintegrate in the seawater as time passed, and no merman or woman could be foolish enough to form dwelling such as that.

So dilapidated was the vessel that as she rested against it it splintered and gave way underneath her, causing Kray to fall sharply. She undulated her tentacles wildly in an attempt to right herself, her body flailing and jiggling about. Putting her weight against the decaying construct had another effect, as a cloud of movement suddenly surrounded her.

Flashes of motion in turquoise and silver darting about her eyes. A school of whiptails, easily her favorite sort of fish. She licked her lips as she counted them, four, eight, sixteen...It was hard enough to tabulate just how many there were because of how fast they swam in their frenzy, but there were definitely more than she could count on all her fingers and tentacles combined. They would usually be caught by the town's fisherman, but before that they were up for grabs.

This is what I love about your work - almost every character has a wonderful personality and story behind them. I really like her design, especially her face and hair. You don't see too many cephalopod mermaids in art and fiction, let alone ones this cute.

Out of curiosity, are those marking on her body natural, or are they tatoos?

I had trouble deciding whether I should fave this one or not. On one hand she looks kind of creepy, but on the other cephalopod are interesting creatures and this is an interesting design. So I ended up faving this. The story was once again great; and that orca girl reference made me think that you'd done one before, and when I checked back, sure enough, there she was.